DOWNLOADS
The mirrors contain the full file, including the music BECAUSE IT'S TOO FAT-- YOU CAN EDIT MY ADDONS BUT DON'T CHANGE MY GODDAMN POSTS WITHOUT LETTING ME KNOW BALDODOPE.
In the attachments is also are two split zip files that also contain the music. 7-zip can open these easily.

Hello it is me cool dude four oh four here (I can’t use my real identity because Mystic hates God). I’m here with an apology for being the main word-man and hyping this up way more than it needed to be, it used to be fun after all. Firstly, I’d like to say…

Don’t try this with more than four people, at least not seriously. Fuck off with that

Anyway, here with the news everyone who wants to burn me at the stake in all their ircs, discords, private groups, annoying youtube comments, bi-daily frantic emails, and D00D64 (is he even an entity that’s still alive??) were waiting for, but I swear we have an excuse a good one a really good excuse I promise. Here it is… SRB2 Top Down was demo-releasable in 2014, roughly 1 year after its production. So you’re probably asking yourself… “what the hell happened?”, why was this mod of a mod hyped more than No Man’s Lie only to suddenly fade into obscurity so fast that you’re probably only actually remembering it actually existed right this moment like the Nelson Mandela effect?

This is game development
[THERE WAS AN IMAGE OF A GRAPH HERE, THE HOST DIED (11/15/18)]

I’ve ALWAYS told people to stop making fun of the vanilla devs, this stuff is really hard and releases take time! But y’all always clown all over them, try it yourselves and see! This is why I was never the one in the crowd to crack the “when’s 2.1 ecks dee” jokes. Ever.

Potentially cringey humor aside, it turns out the “they have lives” excuse is really really relevant. Kart Krew’s mainly a few friends in a somewhat close age range who happened to enter college around or near-to the time we planned to have this out. You know what this means… all productivity stopped, immediately, it was a ghost town. Dev channel became login after logout, “I’m doing homework” or “I won’t be free til (insert whatever excuse British people use here)”. All our features, level progress, bugfixes, graphics… suddenly got left flattened in inactivity, which we thought would only last until the school seasons were over or holidays… but it left us extremely lazy and we realized:

We don’t want to work on this (for the time being) anymore.

Working on one project straight with no variation, hearing the grating Frozen Factory Zone music ten million times, being told to throw together a title screen, ‘fix this jerky unpredictable camera’...It’s all just incredibly draining. I honestly dunno what to even say past that, the truth is that we lost interest near the finish line and still kinda don’t have it. Everyone would much prefer to go back to working on that sweet ass SRB2 Kart build we’ve had brewing since 2.0 with more maps than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and polish than whatever’s on the MB currently, than what we initially considered an experimental side project, Top Down. It literally got so bad at some point that one of our group members decided to go full fucking 4chan-style leak on our asses and threw the wip build in a sendspace file because it was taking too long, which led her getting cussed out and vanishing faster than my ability to pay student loans- So we’ve come together, literally in like four to five days (we’re that fast when we actually care, yep.) and smacked a little more than half of the things we planned to ‘fix’ for a release JUST to get it out the door. Thank Discord, its sleek design and fancy features lured everyone back into the Krew like flies.

This release has bugs.

This release needs polish.

This release has a lot of problems we may not even be aware of.

As ridiculous to say this release is still even after all this time, somewhat experimental. It’s not a 2017 project, it’s a 2014 one that’s time travelled into the future through the “I’ll do it next monday” capsule and continued getting humped by feature creep until it was so sore it couldn’t crawl with all the big plans we had for it anymore. Please do not expect much and be all snarky as fuck or some stupid shit like that, it's probably had less full-on devtime than Super Smash Brothers Melee when you really get down to things. It's just a rag-tag mod made by a few of us in our free-time, there’s a lotta love, sweat, and tears put into working with this annoying camera that clips into the nearest wall of 2000 miles, but it is what it is. Have fun with this short ‘demo’

Also I swear I'm the most useless member on the staff but for some reason unless I'm talking these guys literally don't move a muscle, like wtf. I disappeared for TWO YEARS, IMAGINE THIS. I'm honestly starting to get the idea that they're all just procedural generated entities and stop existing entirely when I double-click away far enough.

Spoiler: The History by CoatRack

CoatRack here, I have been tasked with shedding light on the history of Top Down, and where the mod you see today originated from. It’s been molded and shaped for nearly four years, in that time it has drawn inspirations from various sources and ideas we came up with. I will warn this is a lengthy read, as I am horrible with simplifying things and the mod has been in work for 4 or 5 years.

It all started in summer of 2013, I had been burned out working on Chaos Domain and was seeking something new to work with in hopes of rekindling the creative drive within me. I had been playing Spiral Knights some at the time, and was really enjoying it, when then triggered a memory in my head. So I thought “Wait a second, I saw Spherallic once working on a Spiral Knights themed level! I wonder, how well could someone make a level pack based around it…”, and that thought soon led me to ask Sphere about the textures, and if he still had them. Turns out, he did! After collecting the textures for him, I proceeded to construct a “proof of concept” map that you would remember as “Sky Islands” from the original post. It was built to prove my level design skills in building a more compact Top-Down based platformer/dungeon crawler gameplay, as well as test my idea to see if it would be any fun.

In only a few hours I had managed to construct the concept stage, and went to Kart Krew with the idea for testing. After a test game, they took interest and we all started to talk on possibilities of what could be come of it. I shared my vision of a more “Sonic Robo Blast 2 Spiral Knights” idea, and we started writing ideas based around that. We had plans for level themes and a dynamic level changing system much akin to the system in Spiral Knights, where the next level was based around a rotation system. Although, while this was going on I was -also- packing up to head to camp for a week. Which lead to time where I was unable to see what was going on, and where Top Down’s now seen style was formed.

I returned from camp to find folks still working away, Chromatian, Sryder, and Zipper were all working on their own stages. Though they were a far shot in the narrow imagination of what I had in mind, there were going less for a “dungeon” and more for a “living” environment. This caught me off guard, so I asked around and learned of the new systems that were being put in place. Talk on a single shared camera had started during my absence, which at first I was hesitant on accepting as I was unsure how it would work with the concept level I had started on. But after some conversing on the idea I was won over to how much more Co-op friendly it was, and how it would set the mod apart from the crowd of other multiplayer packs out there.

As development continued more ideas began to crop up, and others cropped out. Levels were scrapped due to them being incompatible with the new system, and because of mapper’s block draining the mappers of ideas. At around this time it a new element was brought up, sometime I was opposed to for a good while (just ask Iceman404 and the rest of the Krewe). Adding a competitive element to the base gametype, the Co-op mode. I saw this as defeating the purpose behind Co-op in I saw it as no one would be working to help the others, and instead be all about hogging the action to themselves leaving the others to rot. This was something I strongly brought up and fought tooth and nail against, but in the end I am happy my stubborn headedness didn’t get in the way as this feature gave birth to some fun additions and added replayability to the mod.

And that is what I can safely recall regarding the origins of Top Down, I would personally love to give a big shout out to Sryder. We would never have gotten this release out if he wasn’t willing to code the EXE for this mod, and put up with constant idea changes that required more coding! Also a big thanks to Iceman for taking pretty much the head of this project and guiding it to what it is today, props to both of these two, and all the Kart Krew!... Kart, huh...

“Tl;dr, Coat made a cool overhead map concept and I completely hijacked the hell out of it and got everyone to run with a completely different approach while he afk’d for 2 minutes; it all exploded into another thing. Never let me near your ideas ever again” ~Iceman404

“Thanks for that.” ~CoatRack

“” ~Iceman404

Spoiler: The Zones by Chrome "Chromatian"

The Terminal

If you’ve ever wondered how Dr. Eggman moved so quickly from place to place, then you’ve found you answer. You’ll return here after finishing an adventure in a Zone, after which you can select any zone in any order. The icon above the switch will give you a clue as to where you’ll be headed. If you want more hints, look at the image that appears in the center of the room. For some reason, two of those switches are sealed tight, I wonder why that is?

Checkered Mountain

The adventure starts here! Checkered Mountain is a blocky Cliffside with lush green grass, pure blue waterfalls, and big checkered boulders. Use the Glow-Fruits to ascend to the peak, a teleporter awaits you there; its destination is Eggman’s old base, the Terminal .

Mainframe Metropolis

A database metro that moves all sorts of data from point A to point B, including you! As you move about the conveyor belts and data tunnels, watch out for the security system, Calling Heaven’s Righteousness Onto Malicious Entities (C.H.R.O.M.E). They’ll shoot anything that comes directly under their shadow.

Weather Factory

This airship isn’t owned by Eggman, surprisingly. The self-operating machine creates the weather you see every day and has been invaded by a couple familiar faces such as Cluckoid & Toxomister, along with a brand new face, Krackobot. Use clouds the clouds and fans to snag some extra points as you tour this weather generating airship

Frozen Factory

Eggman’s oil pumping factories never stop getting discovered, do they? Inside the Factory is steaming hot oil that will burn you with just one touch. Outside in the snowy mountain are collapsing bridges, Penguinators, and members of the Snow Gang. Try not to fall off as you wreak havoc inside and outside of the factory.

Minor Zones

Collect enough Chaos Coins and you’ll unlock a Minor Zone. Minor Zones have no boss and only contain a single act of gameplay, but they are slightly longer than a Major Zone. This is how our game will (or would have) handled progression.

Spoiler: The Gameplay by Chrome

Your basic SRB2 mechanics are here, but with a slight twist. Holding 1 ring will no longer be enough to save you from those nasty badniks. Instead, every 5 rings will add a count to your ring meter, letting you take another hit before you kick the bucket. You’ll start every level with 1 big ring in your meter, and for boss acts, you’ll get all 5 right from the get-go!.

Emblems are as big deal here as they are in Vanilla, however instead of being a record keeper, you’ll find 200 of them scattered about in every level. The more you collect in a short time, the higher your score will rise for each emblem. The first time you get all 200 is probably worth a reward, too….

Replacing the record keeping emblems are Chaos Coins. There are 5 in each level, and the more you collect, the more you unlock. Those closed switches in the Terminal and these coins are probably related, right? Grab them all, and you’ll gain access to the Ultimate Cheat.

Spoiler: The Characters by Chrome

Sonic
Speed: 12.5
Ability: Jump Thok
Details: Sonic is still the fastest of the three characters. His new ability, Jump Thok, helps him gain some new height and maintain speed during 180 degree turns. Of the three characters, Sonic is the most similar to his Vanilla counterpart.

Tails
Speed: 11.5
Ability: Fly/Swim
Details: Tails is extremely agile in TopDown, and his movement will help him run circles around Sonic & Knuckles during sections that require a lot of small adjustments. His ability to fly now requires you to hold the button down instead of tapping it, along with height cap so he doesn’t get too crazy. Pressing the Spin key while flying let’s Tails divebomb on any enemies below him, and propel right back up to the height he was at before the fall.

Knuckles
Speed: 12
Ability: Climb/Glide
Details: Knuckles spent some time doing squats before heading to TopDown, and his hard work has paid off! His jump height is now 100 like every other character. Gliding has a few alterations compared to Vanilla. First, momentum from your current speed is kept during a glide, for best results, charge a spindash and glide after a full jump. Second, while sliding on the floor after landing from a glide, Knuckles can jump-cancel the animation. Lastly, climbing has a limit on how much distance you can travel before falling off, if you see Knuckles scrambling while on the wall, that’s your cue to get back to safe ground! The direction Knuckles is facing will affect which direction is up and down, so if he’s facing right when he connects with the wall, use right to go up and left to go down, and vice-versa Of the three characters, Knuckles required some special attention in order to get him working well inside of TopDown.

Spoiler: Multiplayer by Chrome

We Highly Recommend no more than 4 players for most enjoyment. All 32 players are supported in Top Down, but gameplay quickly devolves into a bubble bath beyond 6. It’s absolutely hilarious, but not something that will work well unless your group is incredibly well coordinated.

The bulk of Multiplayer is a Cooperative Competition for highest score at the end of the Zone. Final scores are tallied based on score earned in level, damage+death penalty, and emblem bonus. The results screen will reward the top 4 ranked players with medal, while every other player will just get a special mention for participating. Lives are shared between every player, with three being the starting count. 1ups will reward a life for each player in the server. All monitor power-ups are awarded to every player alive, but only the player who popped the monitor will receive points towards their score; get greedy, it won’t hurt anybody.

"Small note, but a big note actually. Thanks to JTE, Chaos Coins (or Vanilla emblem reskins) work in multiplayer using the host's save file. That actually means this works like a real game you don't lose your progress in when the server crashes, yay!" ~Iceman404

Spoiler: Documentation by Wolfy

Lua Functions
P_SpawnShadowMobj(mobj_t *mobj) - Spawns a shadow mobj below the mobj specified. This is used internally to give all players and enemies shadows that change size according to height.
P_BubblePlayer(player_t *player) - Puts the player into a bubble. Automatically called when the player presses the tossflag key or moves too far away from the group.
P_UnbubblePlayer(player_t *player) - Unbubbles the player.
P_DoTDEmblemScore(player_t *player) - Called when an emblem is collected. Adds to the player’s score and displays how many points were awarded.Lua Struct Variables
player_t:
(fixed_t) maxflyheight - Maximum height the player can fly to as Tails.
(INT32) emblems - Number of emblems the player has collected.
(tic_t) climbtime - Time that the player has been climbing if Knuckles.
(UINT32) damagededuct - Number of times hit and killed for the damage deduction in TD
(UINT32) levelscore - Score the player has gotten in the current level
(boolean) bubbletag - Determines whether or not the player is protected from unbubbling. Used to prevent the player from unbubbling over pits.

New Linedefs
Linedef Type 446: Enable/Disable Shared TD Camera

Level Header Flags/Parameters
LF_TDNOSHAREDCAMERA - Disables the shared camera used in TD levels. If used in splitscreen, the screen will actually be split. Can also be enabled by adding TDNoSharedCamera = 1 to the header.
LF_TDBOSSZONE - Specifies the level as a boss zone, meaning that players will not respawn until all other players on the map have died. Can also be enabled by adding TDBossZone = 1 to the header.

45 Degree Isometric Camera & Old Damage System
"Hi guys, I'm awake now. I'm glad to see this finally out, although it is a slight surprise to me too. :P

Wolfy has forgotten some documentation and it will probably be added into the first post when Iceman is awake again. The first of these is the level header option "TDBlast". Add this into a level header to cause the camera and gameplay to be rotated appropriately. For example, TDBlast = 45 will give you a 45-degree camera angle, just like 3D Blast. Next is that TD maps have 2 extra TypeOfLevel flags to work like TD Maps, the first is "TD" or "TOL_TD", this gives you the TD gameplay and camera etc. The other is "ND" or "TOL_ND", this gives you the ability to activate or turn off the "New Damage" system that we have in the TD levels and go back to the classic Sonic system. Go wild, and have fun. :)" ~Sryder13

Spoiler: Known Bugs by Wolfy

Tails ascends slowly, even after reaching his flight cap
Loading TD maps in ringslinger gametypes can crash the game
Any emblems collected by a player who leaves the game will disappear until the map is reset
First-Person Camera mode is broken, use at your own risk

Opening the .001 file should automatically extract the contents of both the .001 and .002 parts (provided they're in the same directory) and provide you with music.td. If you have this file and Top Down successfully loads it, you've extracted it properly and do not need to take any further action with the .002 file.